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Friday, June 1, 2012

Trivia (XLVII) - The Long Tail

«"The surprising thing about The Long Tail is just how long the tail is».
Eric Schmidt

Someone arrived here yesterday looking for the mini titanic, can you believe.
Apparently Goa is still doing his thing at Estaleiro do Ouro.
Must pay him another visit one of these days.

Click in the pics to read his stories.

Mr. Alfama got his nickname 'Goa' in 1956 when he went to combat in the former Portuguese overseas territory of India with the same name.

His Army battalion was sent by vessel through the Suez Canal and got there late September that year. He particulary enjoyed the food, the women and the Basilica of Bom Jesus.

In the following year he left Goa, but by then the Suez was closed (someone said an accident had happened but the probable cause was Operation Kadesh and the Suez Crisis that followed) and he had to come back by the far longer passage south of Africa around the Cape of Good Hope.

He ended up visiting Mozambique and Angola in a long, beautiful, journey back home.

Goa named his boat "The mini-Titanic". He likes to spend his Sundays repairing it - a boat always needs some repair - or else cleaning it.

Like the Titanic, the 'Mini' once sunk and spent some time under water, but was eventually salvaged and is now in fairly decent shape.

Today the 'Mini-Titanic' docks at Estaleiro do Ouro, an old abandoned shipyard on the right bank of the river, which owes its name to the shipments of gold arriving from Africa and Brazil during the times of the Portuguese Empire.

As in last September, I went to find Mr. Alfama at his spot in Estaleiro do Ouro, reparing the Mini-Titanic. Mr. Alfama, who usually goes by the handle "Goa" was fixing the stern. As he says, a boat always need some repair. Soon we picked up our conversation from where we left it last time.

Some years after returning from his deployment in the Far East, Goa started working at some company that was building an hotel in the Madeira Island.

The hotel was being built by construction group Soares da Costa who had hired the company Goa was working for to perform part of the project. Unfortunately the subcontractor had bid an unrealistically low price and defaulted. And Goa, who was supposed to make 300 escudos an hour, was never really paid in full.

Later, Goa shipped out once more, this time aboard a trawler to fish for cod on the Newfoundland Grand Banks, off the east coast of Canada.

Soon he found out that his job at the construction company was easy peasy compared to this new one. Sixteen hours shift were common and the crew was often soaked and covered in fish blood as they gutted the fish on the open deck

Soon after this picture was taken, one of the saws Goa was using broke.

In addition, his tape measure had also been missing for a week.

Goa was curious about why I was taking so many pictures. Somehow, he was worried I might be spending too much money on film. He didn't seem fully convinced when I told him that nowadays cameras are digital and most pictures never get printed.

Meanwhile, some acquaintances of Goa who happened to be on the pier started teasing him, shouting that if he kept repairing the boat, he'll end up sinking. But he just replied that it wouldn't be the first time.

After a while it started to rain. It was just a drizzle at first, but soon it turned into a real downpour and our conversation had to end. Maybe someday we'll see more stories from Goa, who knows.